102 JO UREAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



exactly similar to olive oil, sweet and agreeable." I may add that it 

 is free from any of the slightest acridity whatsoever. It is nutrient and 

 emollient. Its specific gravity is said to be 0*9 160. It is soluble in 

 ether, and partially in alcohol. The seed gets rancid when left over 

 a rainy season. It loses its bland taste. To obtain good oil, the 

 seed must be taken fresh. The black oleo-resia from the meso- 

 carp is alone acrid. It is quite different from the oil of the kernel. 

 Balfour goes to the extent of even saying that oil from the kernel is 

 superior to olive oil or almond oil. I am prepared to endorse this 

 view to the fullest extent. The sugared kernel known in the Bombay 

 native sweetmeat-sellers' shops and to our children as kajti gold 

 is a familiar article in our local "fairs." Children visiting such 

 " fairs," which are not uncommon in Bombay throughout the year on 

 '' full moon " or " no moon " nights,* are only too glad to invest their 

 pice in purchasing sugared kaju gola as their desired ho7i houcJie, 

 among other things, on such festive visits. They would not eat the 

 sugared kernels of kaju, if they possessed the slightest trace of 

 acridity, no matter how much sugar might be used to cover it. The 

 tender and highly sensitive throats of children would at once rebel 

 against the use of an acrid sweetmeat under the disguise of sugar. 



But to pass on from the kernel to the plumule. It is not very easy 

 for me to understand how it is that Gaertner says that the plumule is 

 absent from the seed of the cashew-nut. f He describes the plumule 

 as the first bud or " gemma " of the new plant. Further, under the 

 head of Simple biidsj which he describes as having sessile leaflets, he 

 says that " they are opposite and ovate-acuminate in the Anacardinm, 

 Sitodium, Corijlium.''^ It is difficult to reconcile these two statements. 

 Besides, from a personal examination of the seed, I find that there is a 

 plumule, and a well-marked one too, answering the description Gaertner 

 has given in his General Introduction, namely, " having sessile 

 leaflets ;" although in the body of his work (vol. I, p. 193), in describing 

 the fruit of Anacardium occidentalej he asserts that there is no j^lumide. 

 If the plumule is said to exist in the genus, it must be taken to be 

 existent in all the species thereof, unless specially excepted. No such 



* The full moon night in Indian lunar monl.hs falls at the end of the first Lalf of the lunar 

 month ; the no moon night falls at the end of the second half of the same month.— K.R.K, 

 t Vide p. CLXVIII, General Introduction, De Frnct el Sem., Vol. I> 



